Plans are underway for our annual meeting on Thursday, October 12 at 6:00 pm. We will meet at 2570 Centralia Rachels Road in outside Warthen, GA. Come find out the latest on our efforts to protect the health of our area’s families, and our natural resources. We will have refreshments, so please RSVP to katherine@katherinecummings.net so we can plan to have enough for everyone.

The Trump Administration’s plans to scrap and gut regulations that protect our air, water, natural resources, and the health of our families won’t save coal-fired Plant Washington. The project, which at last count still didn’t have any announced Power Purchase Agreements (customers for the power) or financing, still fails the basic test of economics.It can’t compete with cleaner, cheaper resources, and for that reason alone, won’t get built.

Across the country, plans for new coal-fired power plants have been shelved in favor of cleaner, more affordable energy alternatives.

As technology continues to improve, renewables become even more reliable. Coal can’t even compete on price, or job creation, with its fossil fuel cousin, natural gas. In January Bloomberg News reported that wind-farm developers and suppliers had more than 100,000 workers, and the solar industry had two times more jobs than wind power.

Executive Orders can’t waive the required process around a formal rule-making, includingadequate public notice, opportunities for citizens to submit comments, and thorough agency study and review.For regulations tied up with legal challenges,, rolling backthese essential protections for our air and water could take years.

But the Administration’s attempts to gut protections we all depend on for clean air and clean water does nothing to address the regulatory questions that have circled this project for many years. Plant Washington has not commenced construction, and therefore should be subject to any new source requirements. Because the Administration is legally obligated to follow the formal process to replace the old rule with a new one, Plant Washington will probably require new design features—tacking on yet another expense for a project that has no known customers or financing. Coupled with an increase in the cost of materials since the coal-fired power plant was announced, the project, if ever even built, would be well above the initial 2008 cost estimate of $2.1 billion.

FACE and our partners have remained vigilant in our work since the proposal to build Plant Washington was announced in 2008. Yet almost nine years later, this stalled, unnecessary project is no closer to becoming a reality.

You can support our efforts today by sending a tax-deductible donation to FACE, P.O. Box 591, Sandersville, GA 31082, or visit us online and make a secure donation at faceinfo.org/join-face. Help protect the air, water, and health of our community with a donation today.

An article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that Georgia ranks fourth in the country for high energy costs. Electric power rates for Georgia Power customers must be approved by the state’s Public Service Commission. Customers have an opportunity to share their ideas and concerns with the Commission before rates are set. The Commission also approves Power Purchase Agreements for Georgia Southern. Members of Washington EMC (and the majority of EMCS in our state) are not allowed to comment on power rates before they are set. If co-op member/owners raise objections to the rates they only place to voice those is with the EMC Boar which set the rates. The Public Service Commission has no oversight on our power bills. Continue reading “Georgia has 4th highest power rates in the country”→

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took a significant step forward Friday when it finalized long-delayed standards for coal ash. The new regulations establish some safeguards to detect and prevent releases of toxic waste from the nation’s more than 1400 coal ash waste dumps, most of which are currently leaking into water sources.

August 10, 2015
Last week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued long awaited Greenhouse Gas (GHG) rules for newly constructed power plants. The agency specifically addressed the proposed Plant Washington, and refused to give it a “pass” on carbon emission standards for new sources.
The new standards rely on partial capture and storage of carbon dioxide emissions. Plant Washington project spokesman Dean Alford has said that such a standard will result in cancellation of the coal-fired project because it was not designed to meet the standard. Continue reading “EPA says chances of Plant Washington ever operating are “remote””→